Maria Rodale Likens Syria’s Chemical Weapons Attack to Pesticides

Maria Rodale, CEO and chairman of Rodale Inc., is an intelligent person. She has to be; she oversees one of the biggest magazine publishing houses in the nation. However, in an open letter to Barack Obamapublished on The Huffington Post, she comes off as a few Bradys short of a bunch. By that we mean stupid. Rodale, you see, thinks the chemical weapons attack that killed over 100,000 1,000 Syrians is the same as pesticides used in America:

I do not consider myself a Christian, but I would like to quote Jesus and ask, ‘Who among you has not sinned?’ Yes, Syria has undoubtedly used chemical weapons on its own people. Maybe it was the government; maybe it was the opposition; maybe you know for sure. But here’s what I know for sure: We are no better. We have been using chemical weapons on our own children — and ourselves — for decades, the chemical weapons we use in agriculture to win the war on pests, weeds, and the false need for ever greater yields.

Yikes.

Look, we’re not exactly excited about Monsanto and the rest of the nation’s chemical companies. But comparing what they do to what happened in Syria seems wrong. Maybe this letter is supposed to be satire? After all, she did quote a character from a fairy tale.